@Ivan.K#116878 Alright, this is some very good feedback, and I'll gladly take the time to go over each of your points.
1) Encryption of local files.
Your confusion here is very relatable, and the answer for it is technical and not quite trivial, I'm afraid. Here's how Boxcryptor is working internally:
The new Extension architecture that MacOS is forcing us to use is one explicitly made for cloud storages. This architecture is like a hollow structure: The Boxcryptor extension is expected by Finder to answer a defined set of questions, among them:
(1) Which files do exist?
(2) What is their content?
Make sure to notice that Finder isn't interested in where these files are located. By convention, Finder assumes that these files are not local, but in the cloud.
When you add a Local Storage as a Provider, Boxcryptor will answer the question for "Which files do exist" by enumerating your local storage and returning that list of files to Finder. Finder will then, on its own, display cloud symbols for these items, because it assumes that Boxcryptor just got a list of filenames from the cloud and didn't yet get their content. This is the answer why local files are displayed as "online" even though they are locally already available - Finder just doesn't know that.
When you download or open one of these files, Finder will issue the second request: "What is the content of this file?". Again, Boxcryptor reads the requested file content from the local file, decrypts it in memory and forwards the decrypted content to Finder as an answer. Finder now does two things: It presents the decrypted file content to the user or the app that asked for the content, and it will cache that decrypted content to make subsequent accesses quicker. After all, Finder assumes that each content request to Boxcryptor requires a network call. With the file content cached, the cloud symbol is removed and the file is displayed in Finder as "downloaded".
On to locking: If you lock Boxcryptor, we will remove the Boxcryptor Location so that no access is possible anymore. But remember the cached decrypted (!) files in Finder? We cannot leave them, because you just told Boxcryptor you want to make sure nobody can access these files without unlocking Boxcryptor again. So we have to clear Finder's cache. After an unlock, Finder realizes that he does no longer have the decrypted file content in its cache and that it will have to ask Boxcryptor again for the content of the file. And this state is displayed by Finder by marking the files again with a cloud as "online". So the fact that the files will have to be pseudo-downloaded again is unfortunate, but necessary to ensure the security that you want in the locking feature.
(2) Separate alias in Finder for each added Boxcryptor location.
(3) Quitting Boxcryptorr app does not lock Boxcryptor automatically.
Feedback noted, thank you for your thoughts. We've heard arguments in both directions and had to make a decision which one to follow when designing the new Boxcryptor version. Of course we continually re-evaluate our choices based on the feedback that we get on them.
(4) Hard to distinguish which location you are working with in Boxcryptor v3 compared to v2.
I'm not sure I can follow you there. Would you mind sending me some screenshots elaborating this issue to support@boxcryptor.com? Make sure to mention this thread.
I hope I could bring some clearity to your questions, especially regarding the inner working of Boxcryptor with local files. Better explaining the differences between v2 and v3 is a high priority on our roadmap for the new version and we are already working on that.
Oh, and thank you for your appeal to all users: We are listening to all of your feedback, and in the end we do have the same goals: To create an app that is easy to use, secure as possible and that you should notice as little as possible in your day-to-day work. It should not be equal to v2 - it should be better. But even when v2 was a rock and v3 has the potential for a gemstone - the former had been polished through time, and the latter has just started its polishing process. So there will certainly be edges at the moment, but with your reports we'll smooth them, and at the end the result will be well worth the effort.
